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Senate approves statewide employee pay plan after amendments, emergency clause adopted
Summary
The Senate passed a comprehensive state employee pay plan that restructures pay grades, raises targeted groups and creates a student loan repayment benefit; final votes included passage of the bill and later adoption of an emergency clause.
The Arkansas State Senate passed a statewide pay-plan bill on April 1 that restructures the state classification and pay system and provides targeted raises for corrections, social services, state police and nursing positions.
Senate Bill 392, carried on the floor by Sen. Sandra Davis, passed the chamber and later had its emergency clause adopted after the Senate reconsidered and expunged an earlier procedural result. The bill reduces thousands of job classifications to a flatter grade structure, establishes new pay tables, targets market-rate increases for more than 16,000 employees and creates an agency-administered student loan repayment program with monetary caps.
Davis said the plan aims to align state wages with the labor market to improve recruitment and retention. She noted increases of “over 16%” for correctional officers, “over 15%” for child welfare social-services staff, “over 10%” for state police and “over 10%” for nurses in care facilities. The bill also preserves performance-pay pathways, expert differentials and potential merit increases for employees who are already at market rates.
On the floor, senators questioned program details. Sen. Peyton asked about the student-loan repayment program’s payment schedule and how agencies would implement five installments; Davis said agencies would promulgate rules and that the allotment is an annual payment with a $2,000 cap per recipient. Sen. King and others raised equity concerns about employees who will not receive base increases — roughly 6,000 staff Davis said are already at market rates — and about geographic differences in labor-market costs.
Sen. Caldwell and other members representing agricultural constituencies sought assurance that county extension and university division of agriculture employees, who are paid through the University of Arkansas system, would be eligible for pay adjustments; Davis said those employees are in the U of A budget and not part of the executive-branch pay plan, and advised members to address the U of A directly on those raises.
After debate and roll calls, the Senate passed the pay-plan bill and later approved the emergency clause by roll call following a motion to expunge earlier action that had left the clause in question. Sponsors said the emergency clause’s adoption was intended to expedite implementation for certain pay changes; the Senate then transmitted the bill to the House.
Ending: With the bill and its emergency clause adopted by the Senate, agencies and the Department of Finance and Administration will move to implement the new pay tables and promulgate rules for the loan-repayment program and other administrative details.
